


constellations of the things you left unsaid

by fandomnerd



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Dark Hope Mikaelson, Episode Tag: s03e03 Salvatore: The Musical!, F/F, Jealousy, Josie Saltzman/Jade - mention, Minor Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29225955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomnerd/pseuds/fandomnerd
Summary: Hope seeks out Josie after she gets back from the docks. It doesn't goexactlyas she'd hoped. (post-ep for 3x03)
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 19
Kudos: 182





	constellations of the things you left unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> another fic?? less than a week later??? who AM i, even???? no, but seriously, i had other writing i was supposed to work on, and instead of doing any of that, i spent an hour and a half writing this fic. immediately after the episode ended. on top of having a cold. so...make of that what you will lmao
> 
> title is from "talk to me" by lauren aquilina

Hope paced outside the door of the twins’ room, anxiety churning in her gut. She’d raised her hand to knock a handful of times already, but kept chickening out before her knuckles ever made contact. She had so many things she wanted to talk to Josie about—the play, how Josie’s arm was feeling, her fight with Landon and subsequent making-up with him, how Josie felt about only Lizzie receiving a letter from their mom...but for some reason she just couldn’t seem to follow through.

Lizzie opened the door, giving her a flat, unimpressed glance that made her want to shrivel with embarrassment. “You coming in or not, Mikaelson?”

Hope winced. “Does she…want to see me?”

“ _That_ is none of my business. Either she’ll talk to you or she’ll kick you out—either way, it doesn’t matter if you can’t woman up and _try_. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my sister some more ice.” With that, she flounced off down the hall.

Great. There went any chance that she could flee without Josie finding out.

Her escape route effectively cut off, Hope finally mustered the courage to knock, opening the door a crack at Josie’s muffled voice telling her to come in. She poked her head into the gap, offering a sheepish, apologetic smile. “Am I still allowed to come in now that you know it’s me?”

Josie rolled her eyes, beaming at her in a way that Hope hardly felt like she deserved. “Of course you are. I’m not mad at you, Hope.”

“Are you sure?”

This time Josie laughed outright. Somewhere deep inside, a suspicion began niggling at her, her instincts telling her that Josie was being just a little _too_ cheerful right now. Especially for someone who’d just broken her arm. But the greater part of her was just happy to see Josie in such high spirits, and dismissed that inner voice as paranoia.

“Of course I’m sure, Hope. Why would I be upset with you?”

Hope edged closer, taking a seat next to Josie on the bed. The whole situation—Josie propped up on her pillows, Hope awaiting Josie’s benediction like a lifeline—felt eerily familiar.

“Because I stole your role and your big solo.”

“You mean the role Lizzie made Landon give me? And the big solo based on _your_ dad’s letter? Face it, Hope, the part was intended for you—how am I supposed to be upset that you stepped in when I was literally unable to continue.”

Nothing Josie said was wrong, but guilt still ate at her. And not just because of the musical, either. “Speaking of which…how are you feeling?”

Josie shrugged, then tried to hide a flinch when it jostled her arm. “Oh, you know, it’s mostly fine. Jade helped set it, and with a few spells it should be fine by tomorrow.”

Jade’s name brought an unconscious frown to Hope’s lips, her brow furrowing. “Oh. I didn’t realize Jade had already come to help.”

“Yeah! She’s got some medical training, so…” Josie giggled, a faint flush rising to her cheeks.

Something in Hope’s stomach curdled, an acidic feeling bubbling up that was almost akin to jealousy. But it couldn’t be jealousy, that didn’t make any sense. She and Landon had just gotten back together. They were in love. _Epic_ love, even. She repeated it to herself like a mantra, trying not to think about why something about it just didn’t quite sit right.

“Oh. That’s…great. Though I don’t see why you should have to wait until tomorrow—that’s going to be painful to sleep on. You know that vampire blood will heal that a lot quicker, right?” Hope bit into her own wrist, then offered it to Josie. “Here, take mine.”

Josie was already shaking her head no, though a fond smile played at her lips. “Thanks, but I hate the taste of blood.”

“Oh come on, it can’t be worse than sleeping on a broken arm without painkillers. Just let me do this for you.”

Josie stilled at that, staring Hope down for a long moment before she sighed. “Fine, but only because I don’t want you dripping blood on my bedspread.”

Josie’s lips closed over the gash on her arm, her tongue swiping over the inside of Hope’s wrist, and Hope realized just how badly she’d miscalculated. Her entire body felt as if it were on fire, every nerve ending alight with electricity. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think of anything but the idea of those lips on her own, that tongue working its magic in decidedly less innocuous places.

Josie didn’t seem as affected, pulling back after a moment with her nose wrinkled adorably. “Ugh, I can never get used to that taste.” The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled at Hope, who felt about three seconds away from short-circuiting entirely. “Thank you, though. You were right, it does feel better already.”

Hope blinked, _hard_ , and took a steadying breath. “Right. Yeah. I’m glad.” Then, muttering to herself under her breath, “Don’t know why _Jade_ didn’t think of that.”

Unfortunately, it seemed as though Josie’d heard her—and worse, the blush was back, worse than before. “Jade and I were sort of…otherwise occupied.”

“Oh? By what?” Red was creeping into the corners of her vision. She desperately hoped her voice sounded more steady than she felt.

Josie bit her lip and looked up at Hope through her lashes shyly. In any other circumstance, her heart would have skipped a beat, but now all Hope could feel was a deep sense of foreboding. “Well, we were talking, and we agreed that a relationship would be weird,” for a brief, shining moment, Hope’s heart soared, and then—“but I actually managed to be brave, for once, and ask for a re-do kiss. One while I wasn’t under the sway of dark magic. And then, well…you can imagine.”

Oh, Hope certainly _could_ imagine it—in fact, she could do nothing _but_ imagine it. Anything else she’d wanted to talk to Josie about was wiped from her mind in a jealous rage. Rage that she knew she had no right to feel, but did anyway.

Josie raised an inquisitive eyebrow at whatever must’ve been showing on Hope’s face. “Hope? Are you super grossed out? I know it’s a little weird, given the age gap, but she’s so pretty I had to at least try, and we did decide not to date…”

Hope could barely register what Josie was saying through the ringing in her own ears. She needed to make it _stop_ , needed to make _Josie_ stop, before Hope did something she couldn’t take back—something like kissing Josie, which she absolutely could not do. Instead, she did something worse: “Landon and I got back together.”

Josie’s mouth snapped shut. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Josie didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, though her face journey as she processed the information would, at any other time, have been very entertaining.

After a long, awkward silence, she hit back with, “I’m leaving the Salvatore school.”

And there it was again, that ringing in Hope’s ears. Because she couldn’t possibly have heard that right. She sucked in a breath and immediately choked on it. “You’re _what?_ ”

“I haven’t told Lizzie yet—I just decided tonight. I’m leaving the school.”

_“Why?”_

“Because I’m not a witch anymore! I sealed away my powers. I’m just a regular human, and I should be going to a regular human school. At least for now.”

“But that’s—you were fine here a day ago! That seems really fast to make a decision like that.”

“No, Hope, I wasn’t fine. I was just acting like I was. And playing Elena…it made me realize that sometimes you need to make the choice that’s healthy for you, even if it’s not the one other people think you should make.”

So this was _Landon’s_ fault. Landon and his stupid play. “Josie, Elena’s decision was about who to _date_ , not whether to separate herself from her all of her friends or not! Your entire support system is here—you’re going to be totally alone at Mystic Falls!”

“I know everyone is here. That’s part of the _problem_. All of these reminders of what I did, being constantly surrounded by people either punishing me or coddling me…none of it is healthy. Not to mention the way it makes me feel to be around magic all day every day.” Josie’s mouth twisted, her eyes full of disappointment. It made Hope feel almost physically ill. “I thought you of all people would understand.”

“Understand you _leaving?_ Maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought, if you thought I would ever be okay with that.”

Hope didn’t know why she was saying this, any of it. She could see how each word hit Josie, the way her earlier happiness was dimming by the second, but she couldn’t stop herself. All of the darkness, the volatility, the negative emotions that had been building in her ever since she woke from her coma—all the feelings that she’d swept under the rug when she and Landon had made up—came spilling out of her, a force beyond her control.

“Oh, but you can forgive Landon after everything he’s done? After leaving over and over again, after _giving up on you?_ I guess it _is_ a good thing I’m leaving, then.” _No, no, no._ None of this was what Hope wanted, not in the least, but she didn’t know how to make it stop. “Jade was right—there really isn’t anything for me here right now.”

That same snarling, possessive instinct reared its head, just as it had every other time Jade’s name had come up. “Of course this was _Jade’s_ idea. You can pretend you’re making this choice of your own free will, but we both know this is just you going back to listening to everyone else, never being true to yourself.” Her breath was coming too fast, her heart pounding in her ears. “You know what? I think I preferred you when you were possessed by dark magic. At least then you were _honest_.”

At that, Josie’s expression fractured, her eyes going wide as saucers. The darkness roiling in Hope’s gut purred in satisfaction at the response she’d provoked, but the greater part of Hope recoiled in self-disgust. She hadn’t meant it, had _never_ wanted to hurt Josie. The fact that any part of her could take any amount of pleasure in Josie’s pain meant that something was deeply, deeply wrong with her.

She stood jerkily, averting her eyes as she backed up toward the door. “I—I’m sorry, I have to go.”

“Hope, wait—” Hope almost thought she heard concern in Josie’s voice, but that couldn’t possibly be true, not after what she’d said.

So rather than stop, rather than listen to Josie (Josie who was leaving, leaving, leaving just like everyone else, because everyone who mattered was going to leave eventually), rather than _hurt_ Josie again, she ran.

Josie transferred the very next day.

**Author's Note:**

> comments/reviews are super appreciated and definitely encourage me to write more, btw!


End file.
